After the Second World War there were two great blocs on the planet: Capitalism and Socialism. The Soviet Union emerged as one of the winners. Although it lost almost 27 million inhabitants, it was able to defeat Germany and occupy Eastern Europe for more than four decades. The Soviet Union became a challenge for Western Europe which was too weak to oppose Stalin. United States created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to stop the growing Communist threat. There have been great changes the last decades, thus, what should be the role of NATO today?
The Soviet Union was doomed to fail
The USSR created a huge military complex, it produced thousands of nuclear weapons. Anyway, the USSR had many internal problems. It was composed by more than 100 ethnic groups. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia wanted their freedom. Ukraine wanted to secede. Muslims living in the country disliked Marxism. The USSR exploded in 15 new republics in 1991. There was a huge recession. Today, the per capita income of Russia is less than $9,000 while the German one is almost $42,000 and the American one surpasses $57,000. Russia is no longer the powerful country it was in the past.
Trump wants 2 percent for the military
Donald Trump wants NATO countries to assign at least 2 percent of its economy to the military, but just six NATO countries will meet that target in 2017.
Trump has been exigent with Germany but the European country will assign just 1.22 percent of its economy to the military budget in 2017.
Trump believes this is too little, but Germany refuses to spend much more. Germans believe that they are already cooperating with global security by accepting refugees. Besides, if Germany increases its military budget to 2 percent of the economy, it would be an increase of $27 billion.
This could be seen as a challenge by Russia.
USA spends much more than NATO countries
There are important indicators that give us a lot of information. In 2017 USA will assign 3.58% of its economy to the military. UK will assign 2.14 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. Canada will spend 1.31 percent of its economy in the military.
Belgium, where the NATO headquarter is located, will assign just 0.91 percent.
This year, the United States will have a military budget of $683 billion. Many European countries insist that Russia is no longer as powerful as it was, thus, higher military expenditures are not necessary. Trump insists that Europe is taking advantage of United States. Should NATO stop existing or should it design a new policy?
